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Sunday, June 23, 2013

Guest Author Tim Ashby and Thrills of It All Blogfest

Thrills of It All Blogfest: Sponsored by Tara Tyler and Heather Gardner. Share a big thrill with us to be entered into The Thrill of it All blogfest contest! We will judge the biggest thrills and give out some thrilling prizes.

My big thrill is wrapping up my third and final installment of the Breakthrough Trilogy titled Escalation. Wish I had the cover art to share, but that will be coming along in a couple weeks!

Next Up: Thanks to Nikki Leigh for extending the invitation to host Author Timothy Ashby on his Virtual Book Tour as he addresses the age old question that drive many writers today; What is good and what is evil. Take it away Tim:

Why is Murder OK in War? Moral Dilemmas of War ItselfMy new novel, TIME FALL, explores the morality of killing in war. The hero, Lt. Art Sutton, and team of US Army Rangers have “fallen” from 1945 into 2011 and believe they are still fighting the Nazis in World War II. The men have been ordered to assassinate a wounded German pilot and minor officials. They decide to disobey this order on moral grounds, even though one of the men – a bitter Jewish sergeant whose family perished in the Holocaust – argues that all Nazis are legitimate targets, whether or not they are combatants.

When I was a law student I studied “Just War Doctrine” – the theory of military ethics which holds that a violent conflict should conform to philosophical, religious or political criteria. In my opinion, World War II was a “just war,” and the killing of Axis soldiers was necessary, because it liberated oppressed people in Europe and Asia, and ended the Nazi Holocaust. Other wars, particularly the First World War, were completely unjustified, and the slaughter of millions of soldiers by was morally and ethically wrong.

When “a state of war,” is deemed to exist, men may legally kill one another. The morality of peace time is suspended, and ”murder” can be exercised against enemy combatants, but not against the civilians of enemy countries.

The First World War officially ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of November 1918. If an American soldier shot and killed a German infantryman one minute before the Armistice he was killing legally. Technically, if that same soldier fired a bullet across No Man’s Land with the same result one minute after the war officially ended, he was a murderer.

War, by its very nature, will forever be morally ambiguous. And “unjust” wars – which I believe include Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, far outnumber history’s “just” wars. Another character in TIME FALL, a Vietnam veteran still suffering from physical and psychological wounds, gives voice to this.

“No wonder I’m burned out, he said to himself, imagining the horrors experienced by teenage boys who had been drafted to “defend America against international communism.” Like all those dead and maimed boys he had known in ‘Nam. And now half the stuff for sale at Walmart was from Vietnam and the other half was from “communist” China.”

Filled with historically accurate details, Time Fall is a complex military tale that keeps readers riveted through every surprising twist. Read an excerpt and to enter to win a FREE copy CLICK HERE
. For your copy, CLICK HERE. You can also get your copy at all major book retailers.

About Tim Ashby
Timothy Ashby's life has been as thrilling as one of his action/adventure novels. Visit his author blog CLICK HERE

An international lawyer, businessman and writer, Tim Ashby worked in Washington DC as a counter-terrorism consultant to the U.S. State Department, and then as a senior official - the youngest political appointee of his rank - at the U.S. Commerce Department, responsible for commercial relations with Latin America and the Caribbean. He held two Top Secret security clearances and worked with a number of colorful characters, including members of the U.S. military's Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC).

He has lived in the Caribbean and Europe as well as various places in the United States. An avid historian, he published widely on military history, archaeology, business and international relations. A licensed attorney in Florida and the District of Columbia, Tim Ashby has a PhD degree from the University of Southern California, a JD from Seattle University Law School, and an MBA from the University of Edinburgh Scotland.

Book Details
Publisher – Author Planet Press

ISBN-10 1481026674

ISBN-13 978-1481026673

Question: What moral delimmas do you work into your stories? Me, I use utilitarianism, that is, doing something you normally would not do for the greater good.